20 THE LAW OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS 



priesthood ; but it may be confidently predicted that 

 with the spread of education among them their religion 

 will in no way prevent the usual gradual decline of the 

 birthrate. 



Another factor much quoted as being largely responsible 

 for the decline of the birthrate is the alleged spread of 

 the practice of abortion. This also can be briefly dealt 

 with and dismissed. The practice is familiar even to 

 the very lowest races, and there is not the slightest trust- 

 worthy evidence that it is more prevalent now than at 

 any other time. Miscarriage may be more frequent 

 owing to the much greater sensitivity and more highly 

 strung character of the modern woman ; but the belief 

 in a large increase of the practice of induced abortion 

 appears to be based on nothing more substantial than 

 the stories which Tom tells Dick, and which Dick repeats 

 to Harry. Thus Mr. 0. C. Beale, in his volume Racial 

 Decay, mentions a tale he was told of a person in the 

 suburbs of Melbourne who claimed to procure " twelve 

 hundred abortions annually at a uniform fee of one pound 

 each. She has no further trouble, but the victims trail 

 away, all injured, some to die such lingering deaths that, 

 if described, they would chill the reader's blood with 

 horror." This yarn is typical of the rest, and illustrates 

 the utter lack of critical faculty with which they are 

 retailed. Here is a woman alleged to procure about four 

 abortions daily, earn twelve hundred pounds a year, 

 and deal out wholesale death and mutilation without 

 the slightest trouble from the police, although they are 

 continually on the watch for these things, and although 

 we know that to be mixed up in one of these cases means 

 professional ruin to a chemist or medical man. A whole 

 budget of similar stories might be quoted, but they are 

 not worth criticising. What is needed is a proper sense 



